Tournament Most Valuable Player, Danielle Duncan, netted 28 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as The Pride women’s basketball team rallied past host St. Mary’s on Saturday. Duncan went 8-10 from the field and converted 12 of her 16 attempts from the charity stripe to earn All-Tournament honors at the St. Mary’s Invitational.
After taking a 2-0 lead, things went downhill for Greensboro in the first half. St. Mary’s ran off nine unanswered points and quickly stretched the lead into double figures, going up by as many as 12.
Things began to click for The Pride at the 8:12 mark, trailing 25-14. Duncan jumpstarted a 10-0 run with two free throws. The spurt was extended to 16-3 as Greensboro took its first lead since the early moments of the game, at 30-28, following a lay-up by Duncan with 3:04 to play in the first half. Of the team’s 16 points during the five minute run, Duncan accounted for ten.
The game went back and forth for the final minutes of the half, with Andrienne Terrell hitting a last second jumper to send The Pride into the break with a 33-32 lead.
Greensboro quickly pushed the advantage out to six, at 40-34, in the opening minutes of the second half. A three-point basket by Jena Cabe with 6:08 remaining in the game added some extra cushion and gave The Pride its first double digit lead, at 60-50.
St. Mary’s would not climb any closer than seven down the stretch, as The Pride eventually went up by as many as 15 before closing out the 71-58 win.
Joining Duncan in double figures scoring was Bianca Richburg with 13 and Terrell with 11. Greensboro shot 40.3% from the field for the game while holding St. Mary’s to a 39.3 shooting percentage. The Pride also won the rebounding battle by a margin of 43-37.
Nationally ranked Greensboro remains perfect on the season at 3-0 with the win. The Pride will return to the hardwood on November 30 at Methodist. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.